US Politics: Judge Dread

[The Anti-Targ]

23 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Oh sure, take my one off joke and apply LOGIC to it.

Maybe he just really wants to own some slaves?

I have a bad habit of knowing something is a joke but making a serious reply. Just know that I did laugh as well. So joke received.

As to the second joke, another serious reply, sorry. I take him at his word that he really meant amend the 13th amendment. Though I'm not quite sure why you need to change that amendment to try to get ex-cons a better chance at gaining employment. Though maybe he means to allow ex-cons to go into indentured servitude or something, for job experience?

Let's face it, slavery only became weird when it became a race thing. Everyone was OK with slavery in ancient times when the colour of your skin or your national (tribal) origin made no difference as to whether or not you could be a slave. I've seen Spartacus, white people can be slaves too. Clearly we need to get back to that. White people and black people being slaves together. Oh wait we're already there, it's called wage slavery.

[polishgenius]

52 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Though I'm not quite sure why you need to change that amendment to try to get ex-cons a better chance at gaining employment. Though maybe he means to allow ex-cons to go into indentured servitude or something, for job experience? 

Nah. What's happened is he's seen that Netflix documentary, 13th, about the part of the amendment that allows for prisoners to be used as slave labour, and the way the system in general is stacked so that once you've been in prison it's near impossible to get a job and thus more likely you'll go back and therefore, back in the slave pool.

So what he was almost certainly trying to say is abolish that part of the amendment while simultaneously making it easier for ex-cons to get real jobs to break that cycle.

[mormont]

10 hours ago, DMC said:

Well, it is bullshit.  But can't say ever heard of the reggae artist.

The comics character is named after the reggae artist, interestingly. 

[The Anti-Targ]

Don't know how abolishing slave labour in prison helps ex-cons get work on the outside. Is there actually anything in the 13th that is a barrier to ex-cons getting work? It's just better to get job and training programmes going for ex-cons, and give them back the right to vote.

[DMC]

17 minutes ago, mormont said:

The comics character is named after the reggae artist, interestingly.

Huh!  That's pretty cool.  Had no idea.  That's really cool for that guy.

[OldGimletEye]

16 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Another great news that Trump will not get any credit for: NASA just announced their plan to send humans to the Moon and Mars.

Poor Trump!

Marsha!, Marsha!, Marsha!

Why does it always have to be about Marsha and not about Trump!

You know I am as big a Star Trek fan as the next guy. In fact, I think I'm the guy William Shatner told to "move out of your parent's basement and get a life. It was only a TV show."

Anyway, while perhaps interesting, it seems to me we have a variety of more immediate pressing problems and Trump is bungling just about everyone of them.

 

[OldGimletEye]

15 hours ago, SweetPea said:

 and I would favor them currently over the Democrats,

And the reasons are exactly what? NASA?

And here I was naively believing you were just both sidin'.

15 hours ago, SweetPea said:

I agree that Kavanaugh should be impartial, but he did get attacked exclusively by one party, of course he is going to point them out.

The whole thing didn't have to delve into a circus, had the Republicans decided to have the matter investigated seriously. But, they decided to go a different route.

And, what is Kavanaugh's explanation for the fall of Al Franken? Democrats being salty over Trump's election?

15 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Still, he was a bad pick from Trump, and I hope he chooses a better candidate when Ginsburg dies. 

He won't though.

[The Anti-Targ]

17 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Another great news that Trump will not get any credit for: NASA just announced their plan to send humans to the Moon and Mars.

In another announcement: people again want to credit Trump for a plan Obama set in motion in 2016.

https://www.space.com/34351-obama-says-america-will-send-people-to-mars.html

Or possibly late in his first term.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_policy_of_the_Barack_Obama_administration

 

[Martell Spy]

McConnell tweaks strategy for Kavanaugh confirmation

The Senate majority leader is aiming his message at three undecided Republicans.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/01/mcconnell-kavanaugh-strategy-confirmation-856437

Quote

 

McConnell’s focus right now is entirely on the triumvirate of GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jeff Flake of Arizona. McConnell needs two out of the three to back Kavanaugh in order for the nomination to succeed, and he is walking a fine line in addressing their concerns while continuing to press toward a final Senate vote.

McConnell has subtly tweaked his language on the Kavanaugh nomination. He’s no longer vowing to “plow right through” and confirm Kavanaugh, as he was just last week, crafting his message instead to appeal to the three Republicans who remain on the fence.

The Kentucky Republican is currently planning a move to end debate on the nomination by midweek, forcing a critical procedural vote as early as Friday, which would set up a final vote on Kavanaugh by Sunday. But that timetable means the FBI investigation must be complete by Wednesday, and that’s where the situation becomes dicey for McConnell.

If the FBI doesn’t meet that Wednesday deadline, McConnell and Senate GOP leaders are likely to wait until the FBI report arrives before moving to end debate and starting the countdown clock on Kavanaugh, if only to avoid alienating the Collins-Murkowski-Flake group, according to GOP senators. That could delay the confirmation since Democrats are likely to use their procedural leverage to string out any Kavanaugh vote as long as they can.

 

 

[Paladin of Ice]

Here's a full news article to go with the twitter summaries from last night: Months before Deborah Ramirez' story about Kavanaugh exposing himself to her became public, Kavanaugh was reaching out the friends to try to get them on his side to refute her. Which also mean he lied to Congress when he claimed that he didn't learn anything about Ramirez accusing him until the New Yorker article written about it just days before his hearing last week.

Perjury and witness tampering in one go? How efficient. Wouldn't expect anything else from someone trying to get onto the highest court in the land.

Quote

In the days leading up to a public allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh exposed himself to a college classmate, the judge and his team were communicating behind the scenes with friends to refute the claim, according to text messages obtained by NBC News.

Kerry Berchem, who was at Yale with both Kavanaugh and his accuser, Deborah Ramirez, has tried to get those messages to the FBI for its newly reopened investigation into the matter but says she has yet to be contacted by the bureau.

The texts between Berchem and Karen Yarasavage, both friends of Kavanaugh, suggest that the nominee was personally talking with former classmates about Ramirez’s story in advance of the New Yorker article that made her allegation public. In one message, Yarasavage said Kavanaugh asked her to go on the record in his defense. Two other messages show communication between Kavanaugh's team and former classmates in advance of the story.

...

In a series of texts before the publication of the New Yorker story, Yarasavage wrote that she had been in contact with “Brett's guy,” and also with “Brett,” who wanted her to go on the record to refute Ramirez. According to Berchem, Yarasavage also told her friend that she turned over a copy of the wedding party photo to Kavanaugh, writing in a text: “I had to send it to Brett’s team too.”

Bob Bauer, former White House counsel for President Barack Obama, said: "It would be surprising, and it would certainly be highly imprudent, if at any point Judge Kavanaugh directly contacted an individual believed to have information about allegations like this. A nominee would normally have been counseled to leave to his legal and nominations team the job of following up on any questions arising from press reports or otherwise, and doing so appropriately."

Further, the texts show Kavanaugh may need to be questioned about how far back he anticipated that Ramirez would air allegations against him. Berchem says in her memo that Kavanaugh “and/or” his friends “may have initiated an anticipatory narrative” as early as July to “conceal or discredit” Ramirez.

Kavanaugh told the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath that the first time he heard of Ramirez’s allegation was in the Sept. 23 article in The New Yorker.

Kavanaugh was asked by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, when he first heard of Ramirez’s allegations. Kavanaugh answered: “In the New Yorker story.”

A Sept. 24 text shows Yarasavage clarifying that she did not refute Ramirez’s claims to the New Yorker. Republicans and Kavanaugh have said that his former classmates, who gave an anonymous statement to the New Yorker, have refuted Ramirez’s claim.

“I didn’t say I would have known. … I said she never told me, I never heard a word of this ever happening and never saw it. The media surmised (that I was saying she is lying),” said Yarasavage.

Such a good man, having his name and character slandered by evil Democrats and crazy, lying harlots, am I right? [/sarcasm]

[aceluby]

13 minutes ago, Paladin of Ice said:

Here's a full news article to go with the twitter summaries from last night: Months before Deborah Ramirez' story about Kavanaugh exposing himself to her became public, Kavanaugh was reaching out the friends to try to get them on his side to refute her. Which also mean he lied to Congress when he claimed that he didn't learn anything about Ramirez accusing him until the New Yorker article written about it just days before his hearing last week.

Perjury and witness tampering in one go? How efficient. Wouldn't expect anything else from someone trying to get onto the highest court in the land.

Such a good man, having his name and character slandered by evil Democrats and crazy, lying harlots, am I right? [/sarcasm]

How many strikes do Republicans get to perjure themselves before somebody actually does something about it?  I distinctly remember this being a huge deal in the 90's and now it seems like anyone with an (R) behind their name does it without anyone blinking an eye. 

[Fragile Bird]

Hahahahahahahahaha!

 Broken record time. Me in July, wondering WTF there were so many commercials with women talking about a swell guy Kavanaugh was.

The bastards have ALWAYS KNOWN about the accusations around Kavanaugh and were painting a false picture of him from the very start.

[Mexal]

39 minutes ago, Paladin of Ice said:

Here's a full news article to go with the twitter summaries from last night: Months before Deborah Ramirez' story about Kavanaugh exposing himself to her became public, Kavanaugh was reaching out the friends to try to get them on his side to refute her. Which also mean he lied to Congress when he claimed that he didn't learn anything about Ramirez accusing him until the New Yorker article written about it just days before his hearing last week.

Perjury and witness tampering in one go? How efficient. Wouldn't expect anything else from someone trying to get onto the highest court in the land.

Such a good man, having his name and character slandered by evil Democrats and crazy, lying harlots, am I right? [/sarcasm]

It's not witness tampering given we're not in a court of law. What he is doing is acting like a political operative, with the same level of dishonesty you'd expect from politics, which is not what anyone should want on the SCOTUS.

[Serious Callers Only]

Just like Fox news is 'not propaganda' because they don't do news. And if it's propaganda, so what, first amendment. What a joke.

 

America has always had a relativism problem and it's not the left doing it unlike the usual projection centers claim.

[Morpheus]

According to a spokesman for Chuck Grassley, those texts are not relevant and do not contradict Kavanaugh’s testimony. Also, 2+2=5.

[Zorral]

10 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I have a bad habit of knowing something is a joke but making a serious reply. Just know that I did laugh as well. So joke received.

As to the second joke, another serious reply, sorry. I take him at his word that he really meant amend the 13th amendment. Though I'm not quite sure why you need to change that amendment to try to get ex-cons a better chance at gaining employment. Though maybe he means to allow ex-cons to go into indentured servitude or something, for job experience?

Let's face it, slavery only became weird when it became a race thing. Everyone was OK with slavery in ancient times when the colour of your skin or your national (tribal) origin made no difference as to whether or not you could be a slave. I've seen Spartacus, white people can be slaves too. Clearly we need to get back to that. White people and black people being slaves together. Oh wait we're already there, it's called wage slavery.

That's not the historical facts, actually.  Most people yes, were fine with it.  But some never were in any times.

And some were not, such as Julius Caesar, because he, who contributed such a multitude of slaves to the market with his victories in Gaul, saw slavery dragging down the economy of Romans -- fewer and fewer jobs that paid were available to the people, i.e. the voters and the mob -- to the detriment of politics and the state of Rome itself.

 

[Mexal]

Turnout is going to be lit for a midterm.

 

[lokisnow]

59 minutes ago, Morpheus said:

According to a spokesman for Chuck Grassley, those texts are not relevant and do not contradict Kavanaugh’s testimony. Also, 2+2=5.

Democrats say it’s not perjury if it is about oral sex sexual harassment.

Republicans say it’s not perjury if it about exposing oneself sexual harassment.

seems about right.

[Ormond]

12 hours ago, Zorral said:

Today Kavanaugh informed the university that he wouldn't be teaching next semester.  (Learned via a female student at Harvard Law, in personal e-mail -- female law students in deep contact across all law schools.)

Presumably, being embenched on SCOTUS would interfere with a teaching sked.

Ooops, edited to say, NO! What it is, is that none of the students will sign up for the course and those who did, have withdrawn.  (That's how it works, at least in the schools with which I have familiarity -- there has to be a certain number of sign-ups, long before the course is actually in play, to let the course be offered.)  So, how about that? A guy who offers courses, who is going to get on SCOTUS, and nobody wants to take a class with him . . . . 

I really don't think this is as significant as you imply, because the students themselves could have well made the calculation that he will be on the Supreme Court by next term and decided they would rather not take the course with a last minute replacement teacher rather than Kavanaugh. And it's nearly impossible to actually gather data from students who don't sign up for a particular course on how they came to their decision.

[Fragile Bird]

3 minutes ago, lokisnow said:

Democrats say it’s not perjury if it is about oral sex sexual harassment.

Republicans say it’s not perjury if it about exposing oneself sexual harassment.

seems about right.

Uhhhhhhh….I would point out it was Kavanaugh who led the charge to say it was relevant and wrote the questions to ask, including the infamous cigar question. And said Clinton should be questioned until he admitted perjury or resigned from office.

Karma, baby, karma.